Last night, Ducky dreamed that him and Pembleton were in a video game. They almost got eaten by Pac Man and they had to jump from one platform to another collecting bananas. Then after rescuing a princess, they met up with Donkey Kong and who ate all the bananas they collected.

While it was fun being in a video game, Ducky is glad that he isn’t stuck in there and can enjoy the real outdoors.

Like this:

Last week Uncle Critter came for a visit. He taught Ducky how to make brownies from scratch. Mmmm…brownies! The best part was licking the spoons and eating the brownies straight out of the oven with a scoop of ice cream.

Ducky is looking forward to Uncle Critter’s next visit.

Mmmm…. I just love brownies.

Thank you all for following/liking us on our last adventure: The Quest for Xanadu! We really enjoyed making it and reading your comments. You all are amazing fans.

That evening, the dinosaurs held a special celebration for Ducky and the gang. A feast was prepared with lots of desserts. A band played the jugs all night, while everyone danced and played games. Then when night fell, the dinosaurs, along with Ted and Blizzards help make fire dance in the sky with paper lanterns. They watched the lanterns float in higher and higher, late into the night.

In the morning, Ducky and the gang didn’t want to leave Xanadu, they had to get back home. Abigail and her father were safe, and Professor Plumbottom was captured. This adventure had come to an end, but they knew in their hearts there would be more adventures to come.

With Professor Plumbottom captured and the Cat Pirates on the run, Xanadu was saved. But there was still the matter of how to get home. They couldn’t go back through the ice cave. It was way too slippery. Ducky suggested that they build a giant sling shot that would fire them over the mountains. Pembleton ignored his suggestion and said, “Even if we could fix Mr. Sloth’s plane, we would need to shield the plane from Xanadu’s magnetic radiation. My hypothesis is that the magnetic radiation given off by Xanadu is what caused the plane to crash. It is also keeps this valley hidden from modern satellites.”

The little green dino with glasses said, “We know someone who can help. We know some Yeti mechanics that live in the ice caves. They are experts when it comes to fixing machines and they know a lot about the science of Xanadu.”

The dinosaurs called the Yetis and to everyone’s surprise Ducky had already met them on another adventure. The Yetis, dinosaurs, and Pembleton all pitched in to fix the plane. Within a few hours they had the plane in top condition. The Yetis coated the plane in a special silver paint that shielded the plane’s instruments from Xanadu’s radiation.

“Pembleton, give the engine a try. I think we’ve ironed out all the kinks.” Mr. Yeti yelled as Pembleton brought the engine to life.

Before leaving, the dinosaurs of the village asked Ducky and the gang to stay for a farewell celebration.

Once freed from the ropes, Ducky and Pembleton quickly ran to where the dinos were being held captive.

“Hurry, we have to catch Professor Plumbottom and the Cat Pirates. We can’t let them take Xanadu!” Pembleton shouted.

“Don’t worry, Pembleton. I won’t let them get away!” Ducky said as he mounted his dino buddy. “We will stop him.”

Ducky and his dino buddy charged down the pier. Ducky shouted, “Tally Ho!” as they jumped off the pier and into the water.

The Cat Pirates were already in their hot air balloon. Captain One Mitten, always ready for the escape. But the Professor, who was old and portly, struggled to get in to the balloon as it slowly drifted away.

“Not so fast, Professor. You’re not going anywhere!” Ducky said as his dino buddy grabbed his robe.

“Help Captain One Mitten,” the Professor cried.

“Sorry, but I need to live to tell another tale,” he said as he pried his fingers off the basket. “Till we meet again Ducky,” the Captain said slyly as he floated off.

“Next time,” Ducky replied unhappily as the Cat Pirates once again got away.

Ducky and Pembleton were tied up. Professor Plumbottom rubbed his grubby little paws together. “I first started hearing rumors about Xanadu years ago when the Animal Adventurer’s Society was first established, but nobody knew where it was. After years of research I narrowed down the location but there was still hundreds of miles of Himalayan mountains to search. So I hired Mr. Sloth to create a 3D scan of these mountains. Unfortunately, Mr. Sloth’s plane went down due to the strange magnetic field surrounding Xanadu.”

“Yeah, yeah, get to the point!” Ducky interrupted.

“The point is, Xanadu is gonna make me rich! Everything was going according to plan until Pembleton and his rag-tag team decided to stick there beaks where they don’t belong.”

“How is Xanadu going to make you rich?” Pembleton asked.

“I’m going to turn this place into a resort. It will be my own little Jurasic park. Animals will come from around the world to relax in the spas and get massages from T-Rexs. And the best part is I don’t have to build the village or even pay for the labor. I will force the dinos to work for free.”

After enjoying a nice glass of lemonade, Ducky and Pembleton decided to get a massage too. They figured they might as well, since they weren’t in any rush and no one was in danger. “Man, those little T-Rex arms give an amazing massage,” Ducky sighed.

Then, half way through their massage, they heard a loud commotion. Suddenly, Professor Plumbottom, busted into the room and shouted, “Everybody get your hands up. No sudden moves. Even you T-Rexs. Oh, I didn’t see your little arms already in the air.”

“Hey! Don’t insult our friends,” Ducky replied, “And what are you doing here? Why are the Cat Pirates with you?”

When Ducky and the gang got to the local spa, they could not believe what they saw! Abigail and her dad, Mr. Sloth, who they first met on a past adventure, were laying on the beach soaking up some sun with cucumber slices covering their eyes.

“This is the life, my dear. Who would have thought we would crash into paradise,” Mr. Sloth said, as he sipped his lemonade. Abigail agreed.

“WHAT!?! You guys are doing better than we are. We are suppose to be rescuing you!” Ducky asked in an annoyed tone.

“Whoo, whose there?!?” Mr. Sloth said as he sat up quickly. His cucumber slices sliding down his cheeks. “What are you doing here Ducky? Pembleton? Oh, and hi Ted and Blizzard. As for the rescuing, can it wait until after our massage this afternoon. They truly are wonderful. It’s amazing what T-Rexs can do with their little arms.”

“I guess I don’t see the harm in staying a little while longer considering we aren’t sure how to get out of here. Where ever this is?” Pembleton replied. “But first, can you tell us what happened? Why did your plane go down? Why were you flying over the Himalayas?”

“Well you see. Everything was going according to plan. I was hired to fly some crates of party supplies to India for Edgor’s cousin’s nephew’s best friend’s wedding. After dropping off the crates, we received orders to conduct a 3D topographical scan of the local mountain range. Once we got close, our auto pilot took over. We were trying to regain control when a storm hit. But we couldn’t. It was so strange. I still don’t understand what went wrong.” Mr. Sloth said as he shook his head.

“Don’t worry Mr. Sloth. We will get to the bottom of this,” Pembleton declared, “but first can I get one of those lemonades?”

“How are we real? How are YOU real? I’ve never seen a bird like creature with a bear growing out of it’s belly.” Said the orange lil’ dino.

“He isn’t growing out of my belly! Ted is in his special carrier.” Ducky said a little annoyed as sat up and unclipped Ted. Looking around he found Pembleton and Blizzard not too far off, staring frozen at the two lil’ dinos helping Ducky.

“Wow! This place is so cool!” Pembleton finally managed to say as he moved closer. He took in the snowy mountains surround the tropical paradise they just landed in. It was like nothing he ever imagined. “Where are we?”

“Don’t you know where we are?” Said the green lil dino, “This is Xanadu. You guys fell over the falls and we rescued you, like we did the other strange creatures who’s weird flying machine crashed a few days ago.”

“What? Are they okay?” Pembleton asked, and they shook their heads yes. “Where are they?”

“Hop on. I’ll take you,” said the orange lil’ dino. Then they were flying down the beach, and then a pier where a plane was crashed into the shallow water.

“There is the plane, and your friends are safe at our village spa. We will take you there next,” said the green lil’ dino.

The last thing Ducky remembered was coasting down the icy cave river and then Pembleton shouting “WATERFALL”, which sounds like watermelon. Mmmm…watermelon. Wait! Where am I? Ducky thought.

He could feel the warm sun on his feathers, and sand in places it shouldn’t be. He could also hear Ted snoring next to him. When he peeked between his eyelids he saw something very strange. It looked like…it looked like two dinosaurs staring down at him? This must be a dream; he thought and decided to sleep a little longer.

But a few minutes later he felt something nudging his wing. That’s when he opened his eyes wider. To Ducky’s surprise there really were two dinosaurs!

It took Ducky and Pembleton about 0.37 seconds after entering the Forbidden Caves to know why no one had ever returned.

“Whaaaaaaa….!” They were sliding completely out of control on a river of icy slush.

After a few seconds, Pembleton seemed to get the hang of things and Blizzard climbed on to his back. Ducky flailed his arms trying to keep Ted above the water; he eventually figured out how to ride the icy river rapids.

Just when Ducky was starting to enjoy the ride, he heard a loud roar from ahead. Over the noise Pembleton yelled something back to Ducky. It sounded a lot like … “WATERFALL!”

“I can’t believe we made it all the way across that sketchy wooden bridge without any problems,” Ducky said as they reached the entrance to the Forbidden Caves. Ducky was in a better mood ever since the monks from the temple got him a cozy snow suit and harness so that ted could be strapped to the front. “Wow, there sure is a lot of junk up here for a place that’s supposed to be forbidden.”

“This isn’t ordinary junk,” Pembleton answered. “Look there’s a crate, a can of oil, and a parachute. It looks like someone was throwing stuff out of their plane to lighten the load.”

Inside the Temple, Harry the snow hare gave Ducky a blanket and some warm food. After a couple of minutes he started to feel much better, and a lot warmer.

While at the temple, they began to discuss the search and rescue plan. Harry and his friend Tom the tortoise had heard some locals saw smoke rising from the west, next to the forbidden caves. They might have gone inside for shelter from the storm.

“Forbidden caves?” Ducky asked, “Why are they forbidden?”

“Legend has it that everyone who has gone in to them has never returned,” Tom replied.

“Legend or not, it’s our best lead, and we will come back.” Pembleton said with determination.

The gang got off at the last stop – a small Tibetan monastery on a high mountain peak. Pembleton knew some of the animals there and figured it was a good place to start investigating. But as the train pulled away, reality set in, and amidst all the snow and ice, Ducky had a meltdown.

“I’M SO C-C-COLD!” Ducky blubbered.

“Don’t worry Ducky, we will get you thawed out once we get inside,” Pembleton replied as he offered Ducky the last cookie.

“I hope your friends have some warm clothes for us, Ted and I can’t handle this cold weather as well as you and Blizzard!” Ducky said between sniffles.

“Let’s get inside. Harry the snow hare is waiting for us. He should have some gear for us.” Pembleton said, as they headed toward the monastery.

“So what’s the plan?” Ducky asked. “Are we just going to fly in to the Himalayas, do the rescue and be back by snack time? Ted said they are making cookies with Mrs. Cottontail.”

“No, Ducky. Unfortunately we won’t be making it back for snack time. There is no suitable landing strip in the Himalayas, so we will be landing about 50 miles south of the mountains. From there, we can take a train.”

“A train? I love trains. Will there be a snack car?” Ducky said all excited.

“I just hope we make it in time,” Pembleton hesitated, “There is only one train per week and it leaves this afternoon.”

***

5 minutes before departure…

“I got the tickets,” Pembleton said nervously. “But I don’t know which track. We need to hurry, but all the signs are in an animal language I don’t know.”

“Hey, Pembleton? Is that, who I think it is?” Ducky asked.

“Who? Where?” Pembleton asked. “EDGAR! What are you doing here?”

Edgar the Elephant and member of the Pooh Bear Society, replied, “I’m visiting my family. They run the local trains, and I’m helping out.”

“Great! We are on an adventure and our train is about to leave any minute. Can you direct us to the right train?” Ducky asked.

“You are in luck. It’s right behind you and I’m about to give it the go ahead. Hurry up and find your seats. And good luck on your adventure.” Edgar said.

“Thank you!” Ducky said, as he dragged his luggage in to the train car. “Boy does our luggage feel oddly heavy.”

To be continued…

“You got our tickets and I got our luggage. Now which train do we take?”

Late at night was Pembleton monitoring the air waves with his ham radio, but all he heard was the soft crackle of static and the munching of cookies. Suddenly a voice broke through the noise. “Mayday! Mayday! Help! We’re going down!”

“What is the problem? What is your current position?” Pembleton shouted into the microphone. Then he heard some rustling of nobs and buttons, “We are losing altitude too quickly. Our rudders aren’t responding to controls, and our GPS is all wonky, but we should be just south of the Himalayas.” Then there was some more rustling and a faint “Wow, this place does exist,” before a loud CRASH!!!

“Wait! Are you still there? Is everything alright?” But there was nothing. Pembleton quickly stood up and told Ducky, who was hiding behind the chair, “We have to alert the Animal Adventurer’s Society immediately.”